What We Carry

Earlier this summer, I was selected to offer the keynote address for Book Expo America. What would you like to talk about? I was asked.

Climbing, I say.

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Here’s the thing. We think of our careers – and the whole of life, really – as a single trajectory in which the ultimate goal is self-actualization. It’s a pyramid, right? Weren’t we meant to scale it?

We were not.

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I have detailed my own career journey in my book – and more recently, I shared for Backpacks.com the only secret to success I can claim (lush Knomo not withstanding). But do you want to know, too, a surefire secret to failure?

Assuming there are any secrets at all.

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I’m often asked about the how of blogging. How does it work, exactly? How do you make money doing it? How do you build a following?

And from my own dear, sweet aunt: How can I find your blog again?

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Last year, Ken, Bee and I mountain climbed in the Andes. Have you ever been mountain climbing? It sounds intense, nerve-wrecking, adventurous. But mountain climbing, like blogging, is a simple blend of two things:

Walking and walking again.
Hitting publish and hitting publish again.

It’s a series of highs and lows, of peaks and valleys, of the goals you set and the work it takes to get there.

It looks like dirt. And your own shoes. And the road a few feet in front of you. And the rocks. Every now and then, you hit a plateau and see how far you’ve come and what lies ahead, but mostly it’s just us and the walking, isn’t it?

Just us and the work.

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We can make our work harder, though. We can stuff our lush leather backpacks with expectations, with doubt, with comparison, with envy. We can weight them down with other people’s definitions of success, with benchmarks we were never intended for, with roadmaps for another.

Or, we can lighten our load and enjoy the walk.

Whistling, if we’d like.

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In my own small blogging journey, there’s a new platform to chase every year. A new strategy, a new direction, a new cause. I’m often encouraged to be an early adapter, to make sure I’m ahead of the curve, to ensure that my “audience” can hear me through each and every megaphone. Do it this way! I’m told. Follow this trend, this path, this curve! For the love, why are you not capitalizing on the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale?!

But that’s a lot to carry, isn’t it? Every good hiker knows to pace themselves, and a journey spent chasing the next best thing is a shortcut to burnout.

I choose, instead, to walk with a lighter pack.

To hit publish and publish again, quietly, slowly, understanding that the view from here – the muddy boots, the words, the dirt – is a view I have grown to love far more than an occasional sunset from the peak.

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When I think of the backpacks that I’ve carried through life – from Singapore to Ireland, from South America to Ethiopia, from the streets of Haiti to the peaks of the Andes – I see the transformation of a girl who once carried it all. I see a girl who stuffed the seams of a waxed canvas backpack so tightly that the threads frayed, the zipper broke.

If you’re by any chance in that place today of frantic and fast and frenzy – in careers or in life, whether toting a Fjallraven or a Knomo – can I ask that you take a good, hard look at your backpack? What are you carrying? What is essential? What do you believe are your strongest tools, your smartest assets? What might take you where you’d like to go?

Pack those.
Leave the rest.

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“I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back. And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it.”

Cheryl Strayed said this of her own hiking adventures through the PCT.

And now, you must say it for yours.

Go now. Lighten your load. Dirty your boots.

Whistle, if you’d like.

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This is an essay written for Backpacks.com, the newly launched site for carrying you from day to day – whether the daily grind or the Andes peaks! (This one‘s my current favorite.) Journey on, sweet friends.

So much truth in this post. I sometimes live my life with only the end goal in mind…and i’m finally learning that it’s all about the process and if I can’t enjoy the process then I certainly won’t enjoy the destination…if that is ever really reached anyway:) Thankful for your posts that reflect so much of my own thoughts and adds more clarity! Sending love your way!

This is one brilliantly composed piece. Although endorsing, it clearly doesn’t make you feel that. It’s a lovely journey tale, whispered with charm and love, like a friend, cleverly sustained decisively and clear like a tough personal trainer who doesn’t care who you are outside the gym mat.

Thank you, Erin! Although I read you for so many years and I’ve been blogging for so many years as well, I’ve lost track and sight of my path for a couple of years. I put it on the kids growing up, I put it on my time flying by and yet I miss writing. I miss ‘blogging’. I miss everything about that muddy journey, that write/edit/publish relentless pace. I will read you again when in doubt.

oh goodness, cecilia – what a kind note to leave! thank you for your cheerleading!!!!!! and you know, it’s funny – the years i felt i lost track of blogging were the years i gained track of living. it all comes full circle again, doesn’t it?

I teared up at the “Just us and the work.” In my season of life, this is so poignant and true. I’ll remember this one.

Every time I read one of your posts, the primary thought in my mind is “Good Lord, I cannot WAIT for her book.” And I seriously can’t! If it’s even a quarter of how amazing your blog posts are, it will be something remarkable.

On a practical level I do indeed need to lighten the load I carry back and forth to work every day – I can’t draw mandalas all day at my day job, after all – and on a spiritual level I’m discovering I need to lighten the load I carry of shoulds and coulds and why-didn’t-I’s. Thank you for the reminders and wisdoms here, Erin. = )

HEY THERE, I’M ERIN

By day, I change diapers and write essays and design products and answer emails. I speak at international events, say another prayer, brew another coffee. By day I travel the world, or at least the grocery. I read another chapter and kiss another skinned knee and battle another bad habit. I fry bacon. I change my outfit. I refill my husband’s water glass and then style lookbooks and sing lullabies and search for that ubiquitous missing sock yet again.

And so it goes: winter hits, the air is chilled, and you’re finding yourself in need of plush slippers to keep your feet warm, but not so warm that you’re... Read more →

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Author of ChasingSlow and founder of Design for Mankind, Erin Loechner has been blogging and speaking for more than a decade, garnering over one million fans worldwide. Her heartfelt writing and design work has been recognized in renowned international events for clients such as Walt Disney World, IKEA, Martha Stewart and Home Depot. Now nestled in a Midwestern town, Erin, her husband, and two kids strive for less in most areas except three: joy, grace, and goat cheese.